Minecraft Pocket to hit iOS tomorrow

Minecraft Pocket is set to hit iPad and iPhone portable devices tomorrow, as the blocky building game comes to Apple's iOS.

Basically a cut-back version of the infiniminer clone, Minecraft Pocket has much more in common with the original, 'classic' mode of the game than the current full-release version which has now gone gold, expected to be officially released on November 18th.

Wired reports that the new iOS version of the game doesn't feature survival mode monsters, or adventure mode objectives, but simply gives the player a randomly-generated world to navigate and 36 different types of block to construct whatever they want.

The app will work on all iOS devices, and will cost £4.99 when it becomes available at midnight tonight, local time - so readers from New Zealand should already have access at the time of writing.

As well as representing a relatively solid sandbox experience with single-player and multiplayer modes, Minecraft has become a true testament to how independent game developers can make a very good living for themselves.

It seems unlikely that Minecraft's ludicrous success could be duplicated 100 per cent, but the potential is there if a similar business model is used: make an interesting game and offer a basic version for a cut down price, adding features and updating as you go.

A similar setup has been used by the TheIndieStone, makers of Project Zomboid which, although not quite as successful as Minecraft, has sold over four million copies over the course of its pre-release development cycle.